The Role of Fate in The IliadAnonymousCollege

Homer’s Iliad features many sacred cultural principles present in the ancient Greek culture, but the importance and gravity of fate are communicated at the forefront of the work.

While the exact properties of fate and how it can be changed are a mystery to the audience, the importance and honor in meeting one’s fate is clear. In The Iliad, the significance of fate becomes more evident when mortal and semi-mortal characters come to learn their destiny because the gods reveal it to them under some special circumstance. Characters including Achilles, Patroclus and Hector learn their destiny from the gods, and this gives them a different perspective on their lives and greatly affects their decision-making. This essay will examine these circumstances, address the intervening nature of the gods and determine how knowing one’s destiny affects the way the character makes decisions.

In Book One of The Iliad, Agamemnon and Achilles come to an enraged confrontation after the gods curse their troops with a plague because Agamemnon will not return Chryses, his slave prize, to her father. During the argument, Agamemnon threatens Achilles, claiming that he will steal Achilles’s prize, Briseis, and return Chryses home to end the plague....